WASHINGTON – As small towns across the United States enact tough ordinances to fight illegal immigration, the American Civil Liberties Union is leading a charge to fight the measures in court.

The national civil rights group has joined Hispanic organizations in suing several towns, saying that the laws are unconstitutional and conflict with state and federal immigration and housing statutes. Most of the ordinances target landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and businesses that hire them.

“These ordinances promote and encourage discrimination … (and) heighten suspicion about anyone who looks or sounds foreign,” said Vic Walczak, legal director of the ACLU in Pennsylvania, where one of the most restrictive ordinances was approved in the small town of Hazleton.

The ACLU, together with other groups, challenged the Hazleton ordinance in court. It requires renters to register with city hall so officials can do background checks on them. Landlords renting to people who are not licensed face penalties of $1,000 a day. In addition, businesses found to be employing illegal immigrants could lose their business permit for five years for the first offense and 10 years for the second.

Last month, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Hazleton ordinance and later extended the order. A trial is expected early next year.

The ACLU claimed another preliminary success earlier this month when a federal judge issued a restraining order against an ordinance in Escondido that gives landlords 10 business days to evict illegal immigrant tenants. If found in violation, landlords could face a variety of penalties, including fines up to $1,000 a day, six months in jail, or suspension of their business licenses. The judge put the measure on hold until a preliminary injunction hearing can be held on the matter.

The ACLU has been joined in the lawsuits by the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Lisa Graybill, legal director for the ACLU of Texas, said in a statement that the ordinance “puts landlords between a rock and a hard place, as unpaid immigration agents of the city of Farmers Branch.”

Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a national group that supports lower levels of immigration and backs the city ordinances, said that the legal setbacks are minor and that the towns will prevail as the issue works through the courts.

FAIR has provided legal assistance to Hazleton and other towns and cities in crafting the laws in an effort to withstand court challenges.

Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, said that many of the city ordinances will likely be knocked down by courts, but that it could take several years.

The measures suffer from being too imprecise, including ambiguous definitions of who is an illegal resident, he said. For example, they could include immigrants who are in a grace period waiting for a review of their immigration status, he said.

In addition, there are serious questions about the ordinances contradicting or interfering with federal authority on immigration and housing, he said.

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